José de Anchieta
Encyclopedia
José de Anchieta was a Canarian
Jesuit missionary
to Brazil
in the second half of the 16th century. A highly influential figure in Brazil's history in the 1st century after its discovery on April 22, 1500 by a Portuguese
fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral
, Anchieta was one of the founders of São Paulo
, in 1554, and Rio de Janeiro
, in 1565. He was a writer
and poet
, and is considered the first Brazilian writer. Anchieta was also involved in the catechesis
and conversion to the Catholic
faith of the Indian population; his efforts at Indian pacification
, together with another Jesuit missionary, Manuel da Nóbrega
, were crucial to the establishment of stable colonial settlements in the new country.
on Tenerife
in the Canary Islands
, Spain
, to a rich family. His father, Juan López de Anchieta, was a landowner from Urrestilla, in the Basque Country
, who had escaped in 1525 to Tenerife after participating in a failed rebellion
against the King, Charles V
. His mother, Mencia Díaz de Clavijo y Llarena, was a descendant of the conquerors of Tenerife, and came from a Jewish family. He was a relative of Loyola's
.
Anchieta first went to study in Portugal
when he was 14 years old, in the Royal College of Arts in Coimbra
. He was intensely religious and felt the vocation for priesthood, so he sought admission in 1551 to the Jesuit College of University of Coimbra as a novice
. During his studies, the young Anchieta became quite sick, with an affliction of the spine
which tormented him throughout his life, but he was considered an exceptionally intelligent student and a gifted poet. He learned to write in Portuguese
and Latin
as well as in his mother tongue. at the age of seventeen, and when a novice nearly ruined his health by his excessive austerity, causing an injury to the spine which made him almost a hunchback.
In 1553, just nineteen years old, Anchieta was chosen to travel to Brazil as a missionary of the third group of Jesuits sent to the New World, accompanying Duarte da Costa, the second governor general nominated by the Portuguese crown. After a perilous journey and a shipwreck
, Anchieta and his small group arrived in São Vicente
, the first village which was founded in Brazil, in 1534. There, he had his first contact with the Tapuia Indians living in the region.
In the same year, Manuel da Nóbrega
, a Portuguese Jesuit, sent 13 Jesuits, Anchieta among them, to climb the fearsome Serra do Mar
to a plateau
which the Indians had named Piratininga
, along the Tietê river
, where the Jesuits established a small missionary settlement. This was done on January 25, 1554, the date when the first mass
was celebrated. There, Anchieta started with his Jesuit colleagues the work of conversion, baptism
and catechesis and education for which the Society of Jesus was so famous. Anchieta taught Latin to the Indians and began to learn their language, Old Tupi, and to compile a dictionary
and a grammar
, as it was the aim and custom of Jesuit missions all over the world, after their first contact with the "heathens". The Jesuit College of São Paulo of Piratininga, as it was called, soon began to expand and to prosper as a population nucleus.
Meanwhile, due to the systematic killings and ransacking of their villages by the Portuguese colonists and attempts at enslaving
them, the Indian tribes along the coast of present-day states of São Paulo
, Rio de Janeiro
and Espírito Santo
rebelled and formed an alliance, the Tamoyo Confederation, which soon supported the French
colonists who in 1555 had settled in the Guanabara Bay
under the command of a Huguenot
Vice-Admiral
, Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon
. The Confederation attacked São Paulo several times from 1562 to 1564, but the town resisted. Anchieta and Nóbrega, who were against the way the Portuguese colonists treated the Indians, and had had a serious conflict with Duarte da Costa over the matter, decided to initiate peace negotiations with the Tamoyos, in the village of Iperoig (in present-day Ubatuba, in the northern coast of São Paulo state). Anchieta's skill with the Tupi language was crucial in these efforts. After many incidents and the near massacre of Anchieta and Nóbrega by the Indians, they finally succeeded in gaining the Indian's confidence, and peace was established between the Tamoyo and Tupiniquim
nations and the Portuguese.
_1807.jpg)
Peace was broken, however, when Estácio de Sá
, a nephew of the new governor-general of Brazil, Mem de Sá
(1500–1572), was ordered to expel the French colonists definitively. With the influential support and blessings of Anchieta and Nóbrega, he departed with an army from São Vicente and founded the ramparts of Rio de Janeiro
, at the foot of Pão de Açúcar, in 1565. Anchieta was with him and participated in a number of battles between the Portuguese and their Indian allies and the French and their Indian allies; acting as a surgeon
and interpreter
. He was also responsible for reporting back to the governor-general headquarters in Salvador, Bahia
and participated in the final, victorious battle against the French, in 1567.
A story places Anchieta and Nóbrega against this background and links them to the arrest and death of a Huguenot
refugee, the tailor Jacques Le Balleur, by Governor General Mem de Sá
in 1559, but historical research, based on period documents show that the Huguenot did not die in Brazil, in fact he was led to Bahia and then sent to Portugal, where he had his first trial completed in 1569. In a second case in India, in 1572, was finally condemned by the Tribunal of the Inquisition of Goa. There was no involvement of Anchieta in this episode, retrofitted by anti jesuitic advertising.
After the peace, a Jesuit college was founded in Rio under the direction of Nóbrega, and Anchieta was invited to stay, succeeding him after his death, in 1570. Despite his frailty and ill health, and the rigors of slow travel by foot and ship of the time, in the next ten years Anchieta travelled extensively between Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Espírito Santo and São Paulo consolidating the Jesuit mission in Brazil. In 1577 the fourth superior general of the Jesuits, Everard Mercurian
, appointed Anchieta provincial superior
of the order's members in Brazil.
With worsening health, Anchieta requested relief from his duties in 1591. He died in his country of adoption, on June 9, 1597, at Reritiba, Espírito Santo, mourned by more than 3,000 Indians, who much valued his intercession in the defense of their souls and human dignity.
During and after his life, José de Anchieta was considered almost a supernatural
being. Many legends formed around him, such as when he supposedly preached and calmed down an attacking jaguar
. To this day, a popular devotion holds that praying to Anchieta protects against animal attacks.
José de Anchieta is celebrated the founder of Brazilian letters and, with Nóbrega, Apostle of Brazil. He gives his name to two cities, Anchieta, in the State of Espírito Santo
(formerly called Reritiba, his place of death), and Anchieta, in the state of Santa Catarina
, and many other places, roads, institutions, hospitals, and schools.
Beatified
by Pope John Paul II in 1980, Anchieta acquired the title "Blessed José de Anchieta." A movement exists to promote his eventual canonization
and thus veneration as a Catholic saint
.
to teach morals to the Indians by means of music
and theater. He wrote a famous poem to Virgin Mary, allegedly writing it every morning on the wet sand of a beach at Iperoig and committing it to memory until he could much later transcribe its more than 4,900 verses to paper. Because of this, Anchieta is the patron of literature and music in Brazil.
Anchieta was pioneer to transcripe and standardize the Old Tupi language, writing theology
, religious instruction, theater and poetry, and the first published work on that language.
He was also a historiographer, a keen naturalist
(he described several new plants and animals) and an excellent surgeon
and physician
. The lucid and detailed reports he left are still important today to understand the lifestyle, knowledge and customs of Indian and Europeans during his time, as well as the astounding novelties of Brazil's wildlife and geography
.
Anchieta's poem De Gestis Meni de Saa
, written around 1560, described the "heroic deeds" of Portuguese soldiers fighting these wars of conquest "in the immense wilderness."
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
Jesuit missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
to Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
in the second half of the 16th century. A highly influential figure in Brazil's history in the 1st century after its discovery on April 22, 1500 by a Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
, Anchieta was one of the founders of São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, in 1554, and Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, in 1565. He was a writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, and is considered the first Brazilian writer. Anchieta was also involved in the catechesis
Catechism
A catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...
and conversion to the Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
faith of the Indian population; his efforts at Indian pacification
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
, together with another Jesuit missionary, Manuel da Nóbrega
Manuel da Nóbrega
Manuel da Nóbrega was a Portuguese Jesuit priest and first Provincial of the Society of Jesus in colonial Brazil...
, were crucial to the establishment of stable colonial settlements in the new country.
Early life
José de Anchieta Llarena was born on March 19, 1534, in San Cristóbal de La LagunaSan Cristóbal de la Laguna
San Cristóbal de La Laguna is a city and municipality in the northern part of the island of Tenerife in the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, on the Canary Islands . The city is third-most populous city of the archipelago and second-most populous city of the island. It is a suburban area of the...
on Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
in the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, to a rich family. His father, Juan López de Anchieta, was a landowner from Urrestilla, in the Basque Country
Basque Country (historical territory)
The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast....
, who had escaped in 1525 to Tenerife after participating in a failed rebellion
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
against the King, Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
. His mother, Mencia Díaz de Clavijo y Llarena, was a descendant of the conquerors of Tenerife, and came from a Jewish family. He was a relative of Loyola's
Ignatius of Loyola
Ignatius of Loyola was a Spanish knight from a Basque noble family, hermit, priest since 1537, and theologian, who founded the Society of Jesus and was its first Superior General. Ignatius emerged as a religious leader during the Counter-Reformation...
.
Anchieta first went to study in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
when he was 14 years old, in the Royal College of Arts in Coimbra
Coimbra
Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...
. He was intensely religious and felt the vocation for priesthood, so he sought admission in 1551 to the Jesuit College of University of Coimbra as a novice
Novice
A novice is a person or creature who is new to a field or activity. The term is most commonly applied in religion and sports.-Buddhism:In many Buddhist orders, a man or woman who intends to take ordination must first become a novice, adopting part of the monastic code indicated in the vinaya and...
. During his studies, the young Anchieta became quite sick, with an affliction of the spine
Vertebral column
In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column usually consisting of 24 articulating vertebrae, and 9 fused vertebrae in the sacrum and the coccyx. It is situated in the dorsal aspect of the torso, separated by intervertebral discs...
which tormented him throughout his life, but he was considered an exceptionally intelligent student and a gifted poet. He learned to write in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
as well as in his mother tongue. at the age of seventeen, and when a novice nearly ruined his health by his excessive austerity, causing an injury to the spine which made him almost a hunchback.
Missionary in Brazil
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
, Anchieta and his small group arrived in São Vicente
São Vicente, São Paulo
São Vicente is a coastal city of southern São Paulo, Brazil. Its estimated population in 2006 was 329,370 inhabitants.It was the first Portuguese permanent settlement in the Americas and the first capital of the Captaincy of São Vicente, now the state of São Paulo...
, the first village which was founded in Brazil, in 1534. There, he had his first contact with the Tapuia Indians living in the region.
In the same year, Manuel da Nóbrega
Manuel da Nóbrega
Manuel da Nóbrega was a Portuguese Jesuit priest and first Provincial of the Society of Jesus in colonial Brazil...
, a Portuguese Jesuit, sent 13 Jesuits, Anchieta among them, to climb the fearsome Serra do Mar
Serra do Mar
Serra do Mar is a 1,500 km long system of mountain ranges and escarpments in Southeastern Brazil, which runs in parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast from the state of Espírito Santo to southern Santa Catarina, although some include Serra Geral in the Serra do Mar, in which case this range...
to a plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
which the Indians had named Piratininga
Piratininga
Piratininga is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil....
, along the Tietê river
Tietê
Tietê may refer to:* Tietê, São Paulo, a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil;* Tietê River, a river in the same state....
, where the Jesuits established a small missionary settlement. This was done on January 25, 1554, the date when the first mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
was celebrated. There, Anchieta started with his Jesuit colleagues the work of conversion, baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
and catechesis and education for which the Society of Jesus was so famous. Anchieta taught Latin to the Indians and began to learn their language, Old Tupi, and to compile a dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
and a grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
, as it was the aim and custom of Jesuit missions all over the world, after their first contact with the "heathens". The Jesuit College of São Paulo of Piratininga, as it was called, soon began to expand and to prosper as a population nucleus.
Meanwhile, due to the systematic killings and ransacking of their villages by the Portuguese colonists and attempts at enslaving
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
them, the Indian tribes along the coast of present-day states of São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
and Espírito Santo
Espírito Santo
Espírito Santo is one of the states of southeastern Brazil, often referred to by the abbreviation "ES". Its capital is Vitória and the largest city is Vila Velha. The name of the state means literally "holy spirit" after the Holy Ghost of Christianity...
rebelled and formed an alliance, the Tamoyo Confederation, which soon supported the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
colonists who in 1555 had settled in the Guanabara Bay
Guanabara Bay
Guanabara Bay is an oceanic bay located in southeastern Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lies the city of Rio de Janeiro, and on its eastern shore the cities of Niterói and São Gonçalo. Four other municipalities surround the bay's shores...
under the command of a Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
Vice-Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
, Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon
Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon
Nicolas Durand, sieur de Villegaignon, also Villegagnon was a Commander of the Knights of Malta, and later a French naval officer who attempted to help the Huguenots in France escape persecution.A notable public figure in his time, Villegaignon was a mixture of soldier,...
. The Confederation attacked São Paulo several times from 1562 to 1564, but the town resisted. Anchieta and Nóbrega, who were against the way the Portuguese colonists treated the Indians, and had had a serious conflict with Duarte da Costa over the matter, decided to initiate peace negotiations with the Tamoyos, in the village of Iperoig (in present-day Ubatuba, in the northern coast of São Paulo state). Anchieta's skill with the Tupi language was crucial in these efforts. After many incidents and the near massacre of Anchieta and Nóbrega by the Indians, they finally succeeded in gaining the Indian's confidence, and peace was established between the Tamoyo and Tupiniquim
Tupiniquim
Tupiniquim is the name of an Amerindian tribe who now only live in three reservations . All three are located in the municipality of Aracruz in northern Espírito Santo state, southeastern Brazil. As of 1997 their population was 1,386...
nations and the Portuguese.
Estácio de Sá
Estácio de Sá was a Portuguese soldier and officer who came to Brazil on orders of the Portuguese crown to wage war on the French colonists commanded by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon , who had established themselves in 1555 at the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, in the episode which became known...
, a nephew of the new governor-general of Brazil, Mem de Sá
Mem de Sá
Mem de Sá was a Governor-General of Brazil from 1557-1572.He was born in Coimbra, Portugal, around 1500, the year of discovery of Brazil by a naval fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral....
(1500–1572), was ordered to expel the French colonists definitively. With the influential support and blessings of Anchieta and Nóbrega, he departed with an army from São Vicente and founded the ramparts of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, at the foot of Pão de Açúcar, in 1565. Anchieta was with him and participated in a number of battles between the Portuguese and their Indian allies and the French and their Indian allies; acting as a surgeon
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
and interpreter
Interpreting
Language interpretation is the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between users of different languages...
. He was also responsible for reporting back to the governor-general headquarters in Salvador, Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
and participated in the final, victorious battle against the French, in 1567.
A story places Anchieta and Nóbrega against this background and links them to the arrest and death of a Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
refugee, the tailor Jacques Le Balleur, by Governor General Mem de Sá
Mem de Sá
Mem de Sá was a Governor-General of Brazil from 1557-1572.He was born in Coimbra, Portugal, around 1500, the year of discovery of Brazil by a naval fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral....
in 1559, but historical research, based on period documents show that the Huguenot did not die in Brazil, in fact he was led to Bahia and then sent to Portugal, where he had his first trial completed in 1569. In a second case in India, in 1572, was finally condemned by the Tribunal of the Inquisition of Goa. There was no involvement of Anchieta in this episode, retrofitted by anti jesuitic advertising.
After the peace, a Jesuit college was founded in Rio under the direction of Nóbrega, and Anchieta was invited to stay, succeeding him after his death, in 1570. Despite his frailty and ill health, and the rigors of slow travel by foot and ship of the time, in the next ten years Anchieta travelled extensively between Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Espírito Santo and São Paulo consolidating the Jesuit mission in Brazil. In 1577 the fourth superior general of the Jesuits, Everard Mercurian
Everard Mercurian
Everard Mercurian was the fourth Superior General of the Society of Jesus.- Brief Biography :Born Lardinois into a humble family in Marcourt, near La Roche-en-Ardenne in what is now the province of Luxembourg in 1514, in the south-east corner of what is now Belgium. This is the origin of his...
, appointed Anchieta provincial superior
Provincial superior
A Provincial Superior is a major superior of a religious order acting under the order's Superior General and exercising a general supervision over all the members of that order in a territorial division of the order called a province--similar to but not to be confused with an ecclesiastical...
of the order's members in Brazil.
With worsening health, Anchieta requested relief from his duties in 1591. He died in his country of adoption, on June 9, 1597, at Reritiba, Espírito Santo, mourned by more than 3,000 Indians, who much valued his intercession in the defense of their souls and human dignity.
During and after his life, José de Anchieta was considered almost a supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
being. Many legends formed around him, such as when he supposedly preached and calmed down an attacking jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...
. To this day, a popular devotion holds that praying to Anchieta protects against animal attacks.
José de Anchieta is celebrated the founder of Brazilian letters and, with Nóbrega, Apostle of Brazil. He gives his name to two cities, Anchieta, in the State of Espírito Santo
Espírito Santo
Espírito Santo is one of the states of southeastern Brazil, often referred to by the abbreviation "ES". Its capital is Vitória and the largest city is Vila Velha. The name of the state means literally "holy spirit" after the Holy Ghost of Christianity...
(formerly called Reritiba, his place of death), and Anchieta, in the state of Santa Catarina
Santa Catarina (state)
Santa Catarina is a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighbouring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by...
, and many other places, roads, institutions, hospitals, and schools.
Beatified
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
by Pope John Paul II in 1980, Anchieta acquired the title "Blessed José de Anchieta." A movement exists to promote his eventual canonization
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
and thus veneration as a Catholic saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
.
Works
In the tradition of Jesuits, Anchieta was a prolific rapporteur, communicating mainly by letters to his superiors, writing flawlessly in Spanish, Portuguese, Latin and Tupi. His writings are published in Cartas, Informações, Fragmentos Históricos e Sermões (Letters, Reports, Historical Fragments and Sermons). He was accomplished at singing religious chants and wrote several ones, as well as a dramaDrama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
to teach morals to the Indians by means of music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and theater. He wrote a famous poem to Virgin Mary, allegedly writing it every morning on the wet sand of a beach at Iperoig and committing it to memory until he could much later transcribe its more than 4,900 verses to paper. Because of this, Anchieta is the patron of literature and music in Brazil.
Anchieta was pioneer to transcripe and standardize the Old Tupi language, writing theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, religious instruction, theater and poetry, and the first published work on that language.
He was also a historiographer, a keen naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
(he described several new plants and animals) and an excellent surgeon
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
and physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
. The lucid and detailed reports he left are still important today to understand the lifestyle, knowledge and customs of Indian and Europeans during his time, as well as the astounding novelties of Brazil's wildlife and geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
.
Anchieta's poem De Gestis Meni de Saa
De Gestis Meni de Saa
De Gestis Meni de Saa is a poem written about 1560 by José de Anchieta, a 16th century Portuguese Jesuit missionary in Brazil, who was called the "Apostle of Brazil." The poem describes the "heroic deeds" of Portuguese soldiers "fighting in the immense wilderness."The wars referred to were...
, written around 1560, described the "heroic deeds" of Portuguese soldiers fighting these wars of conquest "in the immense wilderness."
See also
- History of BrazilHistory of BrazilThe history of Brazil begins with the arrival of the first indigenous peoples, thousands of years ago by crossing the Bering land bridge into Alaska and then moving south....
- Jesuit ReductionsJesuit ReductionsA Jesuit Reduction was a type of settlement for indigenous people in Latin America created by the Jesuit Order during the 17th and 18th centuries. In general, the strategy of the Spanish Empire was to gather native populations into centers called Indian Reductions , in order to Christianize, tax,...
- Colonial BrazilColonial BrazilIn the history of Brazil, Colonial Brazil, officially the Viceroyalty of Brazil comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to kingdom alongside Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.During the over 300 years...
- Pátio do Colégio
- France AntarctiqueFrance AntarctiqueFrance Antarctique was a French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio...
- Old Tupi
- List of things named Anchieta
External links
- Joseph Anchieta. Catholic Encyclopedia On-Line
- (Dead Link) A Catalog of Anchieta's Works. National Library Foundation, Brazil (In Portuguese).
- Fac-simile reproductions of Anchieta's poems in the codex ARSI MS OPP NN 24. Also includes fac-simile reproductions of some of Anchieta's sources for contrafacta.
- Association for the Canonization of Anchieta (in English)
- Jacques Le Balleur In the Portuguese-language version of Wikipedia
- Cartas, Informações, Fragmentos Históricos e Sermões. (In Portuguese) Fac-simile digitized on-line reproduction of main publication of Anchieta's works (in Portuguese only)
- Portugal in America
- The Iberian Cancionero in José de Anchieta - A study on music in Anchieta's poetry (M.A. Thesis, University of São Paulo, 1996. In Portuguese with English abstract)